Charles Bolden, a former astronaut and U.S. Marine Corps major general, President Obama's appointee to head NASA, is a big booster of nuclear-propulsion for rockets. He has been pushing a design developed by a fellow ex-astronaut, Franklin Chang-Diaz, who has founded the Ad Astra Rocket Company.
With NASA turning over many space activities to private industry with the end of its shuttle program, another major private company involved is SpaceX. The website of the journal Nature reported last year that SpaceX wants the U.S. government to "return to developing nuclear-powered rockets pursued during the 1960s"--and specifically NERVA. "We have to do nuclear," stated Tom Markusic, director of the company's rocket development facility.
Meanwhile, not only have great advances been made in using solar energy as a power source in space--as demonstrated by the Juno space probe mission--but also in propelling spacecraft and quickly in the vacuum of space. Last year, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency launched what it termed a "space yacht" called Ikaros which gets propulsion from the pressure on its large sails of ionizing particles emitted by the Sun. The sails also feature "thin-film solar cells to generate electricity and creating," said Yuichi Tsuda of the agency, "a hybrid technology of electricity and pressure."
The Curiosity rover and the Atlas V rocket on which it is to ride were positioned for launch last week at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. A Florida Today website account--as has been typical in coverage by the mainstream media of NASA's nuclear program--in reporting this omitted the words plutonium and nuclear and made no reference to the danger s acknowledged in the EIS of the nuclear aspect of the mission.
Plutonium has long been described as the most lethal radioactive substance. And the plutonium isotope used in the space nuclear program, and on the Curiosity rover, is far more radioactive than the type of plutonium used as fuel in nuclear weapons or built up as a waste product in nuclear power plants.
It is Plutonium-238 as distinct from Plutonium-239. Plutonium-238 has a far shorter half-life--87.8 years compared to Plutonium-239 with a half-life of 24,500 years. An isotope's half-life is the period in which half of its radioactivity is expended.
Dr. Arjun Makhijani, a nuclear physicist and president of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research, explains that Plutonium-238 "is about 270 times more radioactive than Plutonium-239 per unit of weight." Thus in radioactivity, the 10.6 pounds of Plutonium-238 that is to be used on Curiosity is the equivalent of 2,862 pounds of Plutonium-239. The atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki used 15 pounds of Plutonium-239.
The far shorter half-life of Plutonium-238 compared to Plutonium-239 results in it being extremely hot. This heat is translated in a radioisotope thermoelectric generator into electricity.
The pathway of greatest health concern for plutonium is breathing in a particle. A millionth of a gram of plutonium can be a fatal dose. The EIS for the Mars Science Laboratory Mission speaks of particles that would be "transported to and remain in the trachea, bronchi, or deep lung regions." The particles "would continuously irradiate lung tissue."
It also describes "secondary social costs associated with the decontamination and mitigation activities" including: "Temporary or longer term relocation of residents; temporary or longer term loss of employment; destruction or quarantine of agricultural products including citrus crops; land use restrictions which could affect real estate values, tourism and recreational activities; restriction or bans on commercial fishing; and public health effects and medical care."
Pax Christi is asking people to call, email or write NASA and, says Stewart, state "that until they can launch spacecraft without nuclear materials aboard, they should not launch at all." Also, it is calling for people to contact the White House "and tell President Obama that Curiosity should stay safely on the ground until it can be launched without threatening us and future generations."
A petition to the White House--"Cancel the Launch of the Mars Rover Curiosity by NASA Which is Powered by Dangerous Plutonium-238"--has also been put up on the Internet for people to sign. It is at: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions/!/petition/cancel-launch-mars-rover-curiosity-nasa-which-powered-dangerous-plutonium-238/8HzzWHk9
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